Friday, December 30, 2005

There's a belief in journalism that good news doesn't sell, that bad news is what makes people pick up papers and turn on the evening news.

But when it comes to reporting good 'liberal' news, they're happy enough to give it coverage and not so much so when it sours in their view.

Thus the civil union of lesbians Carolyn Conrad and Kathleen Peterson won front page coverage for being the first of its type. But, as Cliff Kincaid notes in his piece Gay Times On TV, the first civil union couple are now getting the first 'gay divorce'.

Conrad has taken out a 'relief from abuse' order against Peterson and says she fears physical harm. Kincaid observes:

"On the Fox News Watch program, Cal Thomas wondered why the split wasn't getting as much attention as their original loving commitment, which was featured on front pages five years ago."

Indeed. Why would that be?

One doesn't need to pose sarcastic questions, however, about the reason for the Conrad-Peterson split:

Women are four times more likely to be victims of domestic violence in a lesbian household than in a married household. (Claire Renzetti, Violent Betrayal) Ref. 38, Myth and Reality about Homosexuality

After a few days off to indulge in the Christmas spirit, here we are again. We had a good time over Christmas and, as we head into the last two days of 2005, we'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year.

One imagines that the bureaucrats of Queensland Transport and Queensland Police have had a good Christmas too and are expecting a very happy 2006.

This should be bad news but one can rest assured there'll be much smug pleasure around the aforementioned halls of government on January 3 as they get set to use the road toll as an excuse to finally fire up the fibre installed along the M1 and set up Queensland's first fixed flash for cash cameras.

Nick's prediction for the New Year is that fixed speed cameras will be a fact of life in Queensland by year's end but remember, it's all for your own good and the profligacy and ineptitude of the State Government has nothing to do with their need for revenue.

-- Nick

Update: As predictable as clockwork, the Queensland Government is to stage a road safety summit over the holiday road toll. ABC reports State Premier Peter Beattie 'says the community as a whole must take some responsibility for the carnage on the State's roads'. Rest assured you will.

THE country's most prominent wildlife protection charity has backflipped on a plan to install Princess Mary as its patron because kangaroo meat was served at a Danish royal wedding function last year.

The Australian Wildlife Protection Council (AWPC) was to ask the former Hobart girl to become its third patron, alongside philosopher Peter Singer and former Member of the NSW Upper House Richard Jones.

Having "established" that bestiality isn't rare, Singer [in his essay Heavy Petting - Nora] says that although the Judeo-Christian tradition maintains a gulf between men and animals, this may be just a Western construction. "We copulate, as they do," Singer insists. "They have penises and vaginas, as we do, and the fact that the vagina of a calf can be sexually satisfying to a man shows how similar these organs are." The vehemence with which people react to bestiality "suggests that there is another powerful force at work: our desire to differentiate ourselves, erotically and in every other way, from animals."

Even other animal rights organisations are worried (although probably not as much as the cows and chickens one would guess):

Heavy Petting will come back to haunt us and is a step backwards. Unchallenged, this essay will serve to further marginalize and, therefore, damage the animal rights movement. The consequences of it will push us back into the bubble-gum bottomed recess of prejudice that hell hole of ridicule that remains our greatest obstacle and enemy.

Singer is not the type of man you want around your infantchild either.

Singer subscribes to the hedonistic philosophy of Utilitarianism which essentially says if you have a disability or you're old and can't contribute to improve the comfort of the majority, then it is no great loss if you're killed.

Alas in addition to being a sick bastard with an astounding capacity for moral equivalence, he is also a hypocrite:

Utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer says some humans — particularly fetuses, newborn babies, and elderly people suffering from dementia — should be killed if their deaths will reduce overall suffering. Never mind that Singer broke all of his own rules when his mother became ill with Alzheimer’s disease.

Perhaps The Australian would like to do some more thorough research on its contributors before it devotes extensive column centimetres on his views of fetal stem cell research.

Well done Mary, you unwittingly dodged a bullet you never even knew was coming.

Times have never been so good for the voodoo witch doctors of meteorology who can't predict the weather with accuracy two days ahead (where's that damn time machine?) but can certainly manipulate and stuffup data to get another grant.

Friday, December 16, 2005

PEOPLE are being urged to stay away from beaches in Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle and the Central Coast at the weekend after police received credible threats of gang violence and riots.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma said police had received intelligence from the public indicating gangs would target Cronulla, Sydney's eastern beaches, Wollongong, Newcastle, and some Central Coast beaches this weekend.

It's an obscenity. Most Australians consider a day at the beach one of the many blessings of living in this country - especially since 85% of us live within 50 kilometres of the sea.

Everyone has the right to enjoy the surf and sand free of harassment.

Cops have a right to do their job to the best of their ability with the respect due to them as officers of the law, as representatives of law-abiding people.

We, Aussies are quite laid-back, we put up with a lot with little complaint (okay some complaint) and little action.

This needs to change is we are to continue enjoying the successful multiracial diversity which is one of Australia's best attributes.

We can all play a role today by demanding more of our elected representatives, by demonstrating our support for police to apply the rule of law for everyone, by holding these so-called leaders to account for tacit support for violence and anarchy perpetuated by their 'community'.

I recommend that, regardless of where we live, that we undertake the following peaceful civil action:

1. Write to each member of Parliament in NSW and tell them that we don't want new laws, we want the adequate enforcement of existing laws applied equally to everyone. Tell the politician that you expect a response and if the response if not forthcoming or is inadequate that they will be punished at the ballot box.

2. Write to the Chief Magistrate of NSW Patricia Staunton to tell her that you don't appreciate revolving door bail procedure for recidivists, nor do you appreciate her magistrates breaking the law and undermining police. Tell her that you expect offending court officers be removed immediately and if she doesn't agree, write to the Attorney General and lobby to have her removed.If you can't make it to the beach tomorrow and all of this civil minded duty is making you thirsty, join Nick and I for cocktails:

A Day At The Beach1 1/2 oz light rum1 1/2 oz coconut rum3 oz pineapple juicea dash of grenadine & ice.Pour both rums in a glass over ice, add pineapple juice and dash of grendine, stir and serve. Add garnish of pineapple if desired.

In the place of a pluristic society where the beaches are open to everyone and anyone, governed only by common sense as to their use, >ghettos are being proposed:

CRONULLA'S beaches might be divided into sections to remove some of the tensions that erupted into mob violence this week.

Sunbathers, soccer players and surfers could each be allocated an area on the southern Sydney beach to reduce the chance of arguments and conflict over who controls the sand. Muslim and Lebanese "marshalls" and elders might also be sent from the western suburbs to patrol the area and sanction troublemaking young men visiting the beach.

Mark my words, this is a horrendous idea.

Ghettoisation of parts of Sydney is what fuelled these racial/reglious/cultural tensions in the first place how can anyone sensible argue that we continue the practice?

Indeed in the case of Macquarie University, its contact with the sand is to >bury its head in it:

There is a popular belief in Australia that migrant groups living here have formed "ethnic enclaves" which have "taken over" certain areas of our metropolitan cities. The media have strengthened this opinion with emotion-laden stories on immigration, ethnicity and crime gangs, but academia is also to blame with many of our so-called "experts" talking about the rise of "ethnic ghettos" or the "Los Angelisation" of Sydney. But how much of this hype is based on fact?

All of it.

Perception is reality, not only to how this appears to the wider Australian population but also to new migrants who, in the larger cities appear to be conditioned into settling where their fellow countrymen are located.

For many, the only opportunity to mix under the great Australian sun was at the beach. It is the embodiment of what it is to be Australian.

The beaches are free and open to everyone. The only thing that is asked is to show common courtesy to other beach goers and bathe between the flags.

Fortunately it is an opinion which is beginning to be voiced in the Muslim community (which, it is worth reminded readers is not solely Lebanese but also comprises people originally from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and many other places). It also raises a number of questions that this relgious community need to sort out:

>Irfan Yusuf is a Sydney industrial lawyer and occasional lecturer at the School of Politics & International Relations at Macquarie University. He is also a columnist for the Adelaide-based Australian Islamic Review:

The most hilarious spectacle was to see "community leaders" – an assorted array of non-English speaking imams and organizational heads having talks amongst themselves. What were they talking about? These are the same people who never bothered learning English. Few have tried to understand what it's like growing up in Australia as a human pendulum, forever swinging between competing cultural and religious expectations.

Many of these leaders themselves have been responsible for some of the worst forms of racism in Australia. What do mean? When a Lebanese Muslim girl wants to marry a Pakistani or Bosnian Muslim boy, her parents stop him. A non-Lebanese person cannot become a member of the association responsible for managing Sydney's main mosque – the Imam Ali ben Abi Taleb Mosque in Lakemba.

If I hold anyone responsible for events such as the Cronulla riots, it is the so-called ethno-religious leaders who refuse to allow young people to take control and who thereby force us to the margins. I am sick and tired of being a marginal Australian. Yet that is exactly what happens when the person who speaks on my behalf in media and to governments speaks English with a thick accent and expressed ideas that make me cringe.

As much as Australia's White Australia policy of the early to mid 20th Century was flawed, it had at its core one correct ideal:

"We don't care where you are from, but once you decide to make this your home, you are Australian, becoming one people and one culture from which the best parts of the 'old country' are brought to the new."

Food and festivals are those 'best parts'. Hateful concepts like Ghetto and Apartheid are not.

Writing for SMH's blog as The Contrarian, Mr West's quite thoughtful analysis on the Sydney riots polarised his readership and, it would appear, somewhat scared him to the point where he removed the post.

Regardless of interests or political colours, it tends to be a rare day indeed when a blogger removes a post. Even if one's premise is completely wrong and is demolished in comments by the readership it stands as an example of dynamic information collation.

Ironically there is a tenet of old journalism that has been picked up by this new wave of 'reporters' - you stand by the story.

For journalists, removal of the direct barrier between writer and audience is terrifying as it exposes them to the direct glare of public opinion.

The Sydney suburbs have erupted in a second night of racially-charged violence which has exposed ugly tensions beneath Australia's good-humoured exterior.

Local media reported a "terrifying escalation" in the conflict, as 70 car loads of Lebanese youths arrived in the predominantly white suburb of Cronulla - the flashpoint for yesterday's running battles - intent on revenge.

A father who bullied his two teenage sons into killing their sister's boyfriend was today jailed for at least 20 years. The lengthy sentences handed to Ali, a 41-year-old Bangladeshi waiter, and his two sons are designed to send a clear message to the Muslim community that such killings - there is now at least one a month in Britain - will not be tolerated. Ali ordered his two young British-born sons to kill Arash Ghorbani-Zarin, a 19-year-old Iranian Muslim studying electrical engineering at Oxford Brookes University, after his daughter Manna Begum, 20, fell pregnant.

Jack Straw said today that the Government had not received a single request from the Bush Administration to transport terrorist suspects through British airsports or airspace during its global campaign against terrorism.

FAMILY and friends of the British hostage Norman Kember joined churchgoers yesterday to pray for his release as the deadline set for his killing passed with silence from the kidnappers. John Reid, the Defence Secretary, said the fate of Mr Kember, 74, was still unknown after his captors set a Saturday deadline for Iraqi prisoners to be freed and troops removed from Iraq.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

A state school principal in Central Queensland has virtually crawled on her belly to apologise to a pair of local ratbags who were offended by the phrases 'Christmas disco', 'Christmas concert' and 'merry Christmas' in editions of the school newsletter.

Yeppoon State School head Laurelle Allen wrote the apology after a family claimed she had discriminated against them by using "Christmas" too many times in school newsletters.

Paul and Melanie Jowsey, whose children Charles, 10, and Harrison, 8, attend the central Queensland school, do not celebrate Christmas and oppose the "historical dominance of Christianity" in Australia.

The story has echoes of the US case of MichaelNewdow, an atheist nutbag who was determined that his 9-year-old daughter should not hear the word 'God' in the US Pledge of Allegiance recited in her classroom.

Yeppoon Principal Allen's reply to the Jowseys' demand she respond within 14 days was:

"I firstly must apologise for offending you and your family.

"You are right in that there are many references to Christmas and the Christmas season in the recent newsletters.

"On reflection, I should have referred to the holiday season rather than the Christmas season."

That Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said 'school principals should be free to discuss Christmas at will' and other groups have said, quite rightly, that Allen should not have apologised is somewhat heartening.

But the fact that she did kow-tow to such scumbags as the Jowseys is exceedingly disturbing and frankly she needs hauling into head office and telling she's been a total prat.

As for the Jowseys, the most unfortunate issue regarding this pair of cretins - perhaps after the fact that they have two children for whom one feels sorry - is that they run a company called Tag Master which produces a range of pet identification products called J-Tags.

Tag Master has contracts to supply councils around Australia, so, unfortunately, pet owners among you out there may in fact be unwittingly funding the Jowseys' not-uncomfortable lifestyle.

UPDATE:The Jowsey's respond!I get this rather polite, if rather longsuffering, e-mail in response to mine:

Thank you Nora

We did not ask the principal for an apology. We merely brought to her attention the fact that her intense mentions of Christmas in newsletters and letters to parents may be in breach of anti discrimination law. We did not ask of her to change the name of Christmas to holiday or festive.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

If one had any doubts that those on the left side of politics are - hmmm, how shall I phrase this - stark raving mad, then just stroll through what constitutes cogent argument on that side of the intellectual divide.

Larry Elder politely requests assertions that US forces have killed half a million Iraqis and receives this in response.

Michelle Malkin notes that some sicko sent a card to an injured soldier urging that he DIE!!

Nicky's says always believed that left wing thinking is a form of mental illness and it would appear that Psychiatrist Dr Sanity agrees. She offers some fascinating insights into that most prevalent leftie mental illness Bush Derangement Syndrome.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

"...To all who have prayed and those I have hurt, please forgive me for my sins and accept my sincere apologies... I am returning to the Lord now. He loves us all so much. He is in all of us. He's always been there. It is we who need to love Him." Van Nguyen, convicted drug smugger, hanged December, 2005.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

While watching the watching the Australian public's resolve to put the Christ back into Christmas, Nick and I were delighted to see one of Australia's major institutions, Australia Post, continue to back the traditional meaning of the season.

Meanwhile the Forum on Australia's Islamic Relations executive director, Kuranda Seyit has fallen on the old chestnut that he was misquoted by The Sunday Mail.

You'll all be pleased to know that Muslims will let us have Christmas after all.

RISING seas have forced 100 people on a Pacific island to move to higher ground in what may be the first example of a village formally displaced because of modern global warming, a UN report has said.

With coconut palms on the coast already standing in water, inhabitants in the Lateu settlement on Tegua Island in Vanuatu started dismantling their wooden homes in August and moved about 548.64m inland."They could no longer live on the coast," Taito Nakalevu, a climate change expert at the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program.

Or is it just sinking?

It was unknown if the coral base of the island, about 31sq km, might be subsiding.

A number of Pacific islands have been playing the global warming victim game for some time now, aided and abetted by the UN.

So is the island swamping or sinking? It would be easy to find out by placing relatively cheap global satellite monitoring equipment there for a year. But one wouldn't want to uncover scientific fact when fiction is much more profitable.

Meanwhile, there's always a relatively low tech way of sorting this out.

Water always finds its own level. Have the beaches been shrinking near you?

Sunday, December 04, 2005

The Forum on Australia's Islamic Relations - 'FAIR', geddit? - tells us on its web site it is:

"...an independent, grass-roots inclusive and transparent public relations group aimed specifically at promoting a positive and harmonious relationship between MUSLIMS AND THE wIDER COMMUNITY."

It intends to promote a harmonious relationship with the 'wIDER COMMUNITY' by infiltrating schools and telling us to rename Christmas and tone it down. They'd prefer it if Australians 'fall in line', crawled on their bellies like the English and:

"...replaced references to Christmas on signage with the words "Festive" and "Winter"."

One has two words for this particularly offensive litter. The second is 'off'.

The Retail First Group might also have few words to say regarding copyright and its long-established major Gold Coast shopping centre Australia Fair, should 'Australia's first Islamic think-tank' pursue its aim to 'publish its own newspaper called Australia Fair'.

On reading this news story today Nicky asked if it was too little too late.

Muslim youth devise plan to tackle radicalismYoung Muslim leaders have forged a plan for improving relations with the wider Australian community.

The leaders devised a strategy to tackle radicalism and the alienation of Islamic youth at the inaugural national Islamic youth summit in Sydney yesterday.

Being the optimist, I replied that I wasn't so sure. Perhaps there is hope, as long as the aim is to enrich Australian culture rather than take it over.

But it's going to take a lot of work and it may not be getting off to the best start, especially since they've played the victim card straight out of the deck:

Delegates have also called for action to address bullying and discrimination.

They also want more grassroots contacts through sporting and social groups, greater representation in politics, and a boost in support to help young unemployed Muslims find work...

Iktimal Hage-Ali from the New South Wales Youth Advisory Council says:"They've stepped up and said 'look these are the issues, but we're not here to talk about the issues again and again, we're here to talk about solutions'."

Let's do that eh? Muslim youth are taught that they are superior and everyone is inferior until they convert to Islam (compare and contrast). As a result, they don't have a lot of respect for the institutions on which Australia was founded. So here is my list of discussion starters:

Discrimination - Targeting people because of their ethnic background is discrimination. Sydney's gang rapes are the most aggregious example of this.Grassroots contacts - Well, I don't know what Sheikh Khalid Yasin would say about that. Here's another story to illustrate the point. In our fair city we've had a number of quote violent storms. After one significant and damaging hailstorm, an Australian, white, non-Muslim man went to his neighbour next door to see how they fared and whether they needed assistance. Although the wife, a Muslim, was at home, she did not come to the door, nor acknowledge this man's presence. He went away still not knowing if anyone was in distress.

Representation in politics - You may wish to try your luck with The Best Party Of Allah. But remember, Australia is not and will never be part of the Caliphate.

Unemployment - It's hard to believe that there is high unemployment in this country where the rate is a mere 4%, but there it is. Just a few suggestions - learn to speak English, let your daughters and sisters finish their education and get a job if they wish, accept the fact that you will be working with non-Muslims and get over it.

The curious cat who wound up traveling to France in a cargo container touched down at the Milwaukee airport on Thursday, greeted by her family and a horde of reporters.

A Continental cargo agent handed her over to 9-year-old Nick Herndon, son of the cat's owners, Donny and Lesley McElhiney. Emily meowed and pawed at reporters' microphones as the family answered questions.

Awww, how cute! I knew there was a reason why Nick and I are cat people... no, that sort of cat people...

With the hanging in Singapore yesterday of drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van, there was the predictable howls of outrage by the Australian mainstream media. Though unconcerned by the hangings of non-Australians for the same offence, our media's orgy of angst was such that Nora and I could not even watch the 6pm National Nine News after it descended into nausea-inducing pathos and sanctimony within the opening minute.

Note to Packer: We'll keep turning off and eventually just won't watch your usually workman-like 6pm bulletin at all if you keep letting your employees vent their own biases.

One agrees that imposing the death penalty for anything less than murder seems somewhat extreme. But the people of Singapore judge drug trafficking serious enough to warrant death for offenders and support their government in this, despite efforts by international media to talk this down. And even on the ABC's forums, there was plenty of support for backing Singapore's sovereignty, even if one does not agree with the death penalty.

It was also noted by ABC forum poster Patrick that:

Most of the people on here who are crying for us to interfere in another country's legal system are the same ones who say on other issues (Afghanistan, Iraq et al) that we have no right interefering in other countries.

Come on guys, take a position; do we interefere if something is wrong or do we respect their right to sovereignty? You can't have it both ways.

Also yesterday as part of the media's campaign against other countries' rights to enact laws that suit them (when those laws don't suit the liberal left), one encountered numerous tales of murderer Kenneth Boyd who, early in the day, had drawn the straw to become the 1000th person executed in the US since the 1976 reintroduction of the death penalty and by the end of the day had become that very statistic.

Agence France Presse correspondents in Paris, in a Courier-Mail story linked above, noted Boyd's demise while selling the Amnesty International line that the death penalty is losing ground, with 122 countries or territories abolishing it in law or in practice. What they failed to point out is that many of these countries did not abolish the death penalty because they had 'seen the light' but because they were blackmailed into doing so by liberal first-world nations which tie death penalty abolition into conditions for trade and other international relations.

But in citing only Boyd's death by lethal injection, the correspondents turn a blind eye to Boyd's crime, a premeditated double murder committed in front of his own children.

Boyd, armed with a .357 magnum pistol he had purchased five days earlier, went to pick up his children at the Curry home. He told the boys they were going for pizza, but instead Boyd circled the Curry's neighborhood several times. The pistol was sitting on the seat of the car between Boyd and his children. Christopher Boyd, age 13, moved the pistol under the car seat, away from his father's reach.

Boyd pulled into the Curry home and yelled at Christopher to give him the gun. Christopher, frightened, ran to warn his grandparents

During the 1988 slayings, Boyd's son Christopher was pinned under his mother's body as Boyd unloaded a .357-caliber Magnum into her. The boy pushed his way under a bed to escape the barrage.

Popular among anti-death penalty types is the claim that executing murderers doesn't achieve anything except revenge. Try telling that to Britain's Linda Bowyer or America's Julio Chavez - oh, sorry, you can't. They were murdered by murderers who escaped.

Bowyer died when:

John Thomas Straffen... strangled 2 little girls but was found insane and sent to Broadmoor. In April 1952 he escaped and strangled Linda Bowyer before being recaptured the following day. He was sentenced to hang for this murder and reprieved after his appeal. Fortunately he has not been released, and is Britain's longest serving prisoner. (Source)

Let's hope he doesn't give them the slip again.

As for American Julio Chavez, his killer was Norman Parker Jr, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in Florida in 1967 for a first degree murder committed the previous year (and also carrying a second degree murder conviction in Washington). But he escaped and committed a further murder and rape:

On 07/18/78, Parker and codefendant Robbie Lee Manson were admitted into a Miami home to complete an illegal drug deal with two male occupants of the home. Soon thereafter, the defendants produced firearms and demanded cocaine and money from the two men. They were forced to surrender jewelry, strip naked and lie on a bed. Two other occupants, a female and her boyfriend, were discovered in another room and also were forced to strip naked and surrender jewelry. All four victims were then confined to the same room, on the same bed. Parker then searched the home for additional valuables while Manson stood guard over the four occupants. After a period of time, Parker aimed a revolver at Chavez’s back, whereupon Manson handed him a pillow. Parker then shot Chavez through the pillow. The other three victims heard the muffled shot and nothing further from Chavez. Parker then committed a sexual battery on the female. (Source)

Of course, the more cynical anti-death penalty liberal might suggest Chavez could have been alive today if he weren't mixed up with illegal drugs.

But then so might Nguyen Tuong Van.

And before any bleeding hearts out there suggest the authorities should have better security to stop killers escaping, consider this:

According to Home Office figures, at least 71 people have committed a second murder after being released on licence from their first life sentence in the last 35 years. (Source, as above)

Ms Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many convicted murderers have killed again after release from prison in the last 10 years; and what is the average sentence that they serve as a result. [18478]

Mr. Maclean: In England and Wales, during the years 1986 to 1995, nine persons released from prison after having served a sentence following conviction for murder are known to have killed again. One of these persons subsequently committed suicide. The other eight were sentenced to life imprisonment.

They also want vending machines in schools to sell only bottled water.

Perhaps someone should tell doctors that kids are fat because (a) they spend too much time sitting on their lard-asses watching TV and playing PlayStation in the middle of the day and (b) because their parents are so duped by media hysteria about a paedophile on every corner/obsessed with indulging their children's every lazy little whim that they won't let/make their obese offspring walk to school.

But would doctors listen? Probably not.

This is the simple-minded bunch whose professional organisation called for a ban on the sale of sharp kitchen knives because people get stabbed with them.

It's the same organisation which counsels law-abiding citizens against owning guns and wants a ban on boxing.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

While reflecting on familial relationships on my side of the family I was reminded that how out of adverse circumstances God can use the most unlikely people and events to bring about a higher purpose, a greater good.

Early on in the Old Testament there are two examples. Jacob, who along with his mother went out of their way to deceive Jacob's father Isaac and rob older brother Esau of his birthright.

Joseph of the Technicolor dream coat fame was an arrogant little twerp who no doubt deserved the beating his brothers gave him.

Today we have the story of Van Nguyen a young man who is soon to pay for his life for a decision he made to carry drugs into Singapore, a country which has the death penalty for that crime.

On Friday, December 2 he is to be hung if last minute appeals for clemency are rejected.

On the surface, it seems like a waste of a life. He had no other criminal record, he had smuggled drugs to help his addicted and indebted brother.

What good could possibly come from this?

Just as Jacob's actions established Israel and Joseph's experience allowed both Egypt and Israel to survive a devastating famine, and saving many thousand lives, it seem apparent already that Van Nguyen's story is changing lives already.

"I am glad and ready to go now. I believe, by then, God's purpose for me will have been achieved," he wrote to a close friend.

"I truly believe God put me here for a reason, and now that his plans for me have almost been achieved, he is preparing for me little baby angels to play with when I return to Him"...

...God and faith are common themes. In a letter to a friend, written before his clemency was rejected, he writes: "The hidden providence of God – your undying support has gone a long way in keeping my pilot light burning; especially during my darkest moments."

UPDATE: Very remiss of me to have not acknowledged JF Beck for pointing me to such fun. From which it seems, I've now been banned...

UPDATE II: Oh joy. it turned out that I wasn't banned, just a victim of wiggy comment posting. I have been roundedly spanked by Master Robert for not making that immediately clear on this site, although I did correct the record at Evil Pundit's. Sorry Master Robert, please tell me all is forgiven? :-)

Monday, November 21, 2005

Queensland Arts Minister Rod Welford admits the TV show Big Brother is "distasteful" (someone tell 'family' theme park Dreamworld, home of Wiggles World) but Welford has chosen to ignore two petitions from his constituents to withdraw Queensland texpayer funding from the sex and sleazefest show.

However, his claim of 260 jobs created over the five years of the program is stretching the truth somewhat. Good friend Jai Normosone and commenter Nilknarf make the point in this regard.

Additionally, 260 over five years is 52 per season - and the fact is not all 52 would be employed at the same time, nor would any of them be full-time positions. Welford's 260 probably translates to a maximum 20 of what the public service refers to as 'FTE's - full-time equivalents.

Not exactly a good return on our 'investment'.

Welford was reported in the Gold Coast Bulletin (not archived so can't link) as saying he shared the approximately 4600 petitioners' concerns but if his government withdrew taxpayer support, we lose the production (and all those jobs) to NSW.

Meanwhile, the Queensland Government continues to spend more taxpayer money on other programs to discourage exactly the same kind of behaviour which Big Brother glorifies.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

"(Four year old) Emma was with her grandfather and there had been a picnic after the football and she just ran across the road to her grandmother," said Mr Sahovic.

Emma was struck by an eastbound car driven by a woman named Rachelle and thrown into the path of a white van heading west.

What followed was disgusting:

After the accident, people at the soccer ground turned on the van driver, attacking him until police intervened.

The driver was in no way at fault, a point emphasised immediately by police.

That such a sickening display of third-world savagery took place on a Gold Coast street was bad enough. But it took six days before anyone apologised for the actions of the family's friends and neighbours:

Mr Sahovic said he and his family wanted to apologise about the actions of those who attacked the driver.

"It shouldn't have happened, but it was just a sudden reaction and they did not know what had happened," he said. "The Bosnian community is a very close one on the Gold Coast and everyone knew Emma and loved her, so that was just their shocked, sudden reaction, but it shouldn't have happened.

"This was not their (the drivers') fault, it was nobody's fault, it was just a terrible tragic thing and we are all in shock."

One feels compelled to point out two things:

1. The attacked driver - reported two days after the accident as being a nervous wreck - was not simply shoved about. He was driving along doing nothing wrong when a child's body was suddenly thrown into the path of his van. He skidded to a halt and his vehicle was immediately surrounded by a baying mob which rocked and kicked the van then dragged him from the driver's seat and commenced beating him. He was seen bloodied and dazed in press photos after the event.

2. His attackers were Bosnian Muslims.

Welcome to Musgrave Avenue, just outside the grounds of the Gold Coast Mustangs, at Labrador, on the Gold Coast, Australia, in November 2005 and a display of multiculturalism at work.

Incidentally:

There was also a large gathering at the funeral and prayer service for Emma at the Gold Coast Mosque on Wednesday.

Mrs Sahovic could not attend, but her husband said the crowd numbers were quite humbling.

'Mrs Sahovic could not attend' her child's funeral. Perhaps she was too distraught.

Footnote: One is unable to link to Gold Coast Bulletin news stories as they are deleted from the site after 24 hours. Here's the entire piece (written in the GC Bulletin's own special hysterical style):

Tears for their angel19Nov05

SHE looked older, was wise beyond her tender years, and everybody whose lives she touched loved her to bits.

This was four-year-old Emma Sahovic, whose life was cut dreadfully short last Monday when she was struck by two vehicles in a tragic accident in Musgrave Avenue, Musgrave Hill.

Speaking publicly for the first time yesterday, her mother Emira said the professional photograph which appears on our front page today was taken 11 days ago.

There was no special reason for the photo shoot and looking at this little cherub, no excuse would have been needed.

"Everybody loved Emma, everybody," said her mother.

"She was bright, happy and very intelligent, ahead of her years and no one who knew her will ever forget her."

Emma is survived by Din, her four-month-old brother.

Neither Emira nor her husband Damir was present at the Musgrave Avenue soccer ground when tragedy occurred about 6pm on Sunday.

"Emma was with her grandfather and there had been a picnic after the football and she just ran across the road to her grandmother," said Mr Sahovic.

Emma was struck by an eastbound car driven by a woman named Rachelle and thrown into the path of a white van heading west.

She was taken to the Gold Coast Hospital with massive injuries, then transferred to Brisbane's Mater Children's Hospital where she lost her battle for life at 4.30am on Monday.

After the accident, people at the soccer ground turned on the van driver, attacking him until police intervened.

Mr Sahovic said he and his family wanted to apologise about the actions of those who attacked the driver.

"It shouldn't have happened, but it was just a sudden reaction and they did not know what had happened," he said. "The Bosnian community is a very close one on the Gold Coast and everyone knew Emma and loved her, so that was just their shocked, sudden reaction, but it shouldn't have happened.

"This was not their (the drivers') fault, it was nobody's fault, it was just a terrible tragic thing and we are all in shock."

He said Rachelle had visited their Southport home with flowers this week. "It must have been very hard for her to do that and we would like to thank her for coming to our home like that," he said.

Mrs Sahovic said the family would also like to thank all police officers, emergency service workers and staff at both hospitals for their help and understanding.

She said the family had been buoyed by the support of their community and friends.

"We have received hundreds of phone calls, including many from Europe and we have had hundreds of people at the home and they have brought a great deal of food, which is our way," she said.

There was also a large gathering at the funeral and prayer service for Emma at the Gold Coast Mosque on Wednesday.

Mrs Sahovic could not attend, but her husband said the crowd numbers were quite humbling.

"There must have been 10 different religions represented and this was most special for a four-year-old girl, whose life was only beginning," he said.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Zawahri also warns Muslim leaders in Britain who “work for the pleasure of Elizabeth, the head of the Church of England”.

He said that those who followed her were saying: “We are British citizens, subject to Britain’s crusader laws, and we are proud of our submission.” In a possible dig at the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), which had instructed mosques to inform on potential terrorists, he attacked “those who issue fatwas, according to the school of thought of the head of the Church of England”.

Asked if she would remove her two young daughters from London during the Blitz, Queen Elizabeth replied: "The girls will not leave unless I do. I will not leave unless the King does. And the King will not leave under any circumstances whatsoever."...

...Her defiance caused Hitler to brand her "the most dangerous woman in Europe."

Sunday, November 13, 2005

A few years ago one gent told me that faith in anything was stupid and that science had, or would, explain everything there was to know.

I asked him that if nothing could be taken on 'faith', how he knew all of this to be true.

He said that he'd read books and papers which explained everything he needed to know about the natural world.

I pointed out that even in that statement, he had made an leap of faith. How could he knew that anything was true if he himself had not personally tested the outcome. He was taking it on faith that what he was reading was true.

I was reminded of this after reading Michelle Malkin's post today.

Michelle points out that 9/11 conspiracy theories still abound, perpetrated by people whose academic credentials appear to be no innoculation against stupidity.

Such is the case of Brigham Young University physics professor Steven E. Jones:

"It is quite plausible that explosives were pre-planted in all three buildings and set off after the two plane crashes — which were actually a diversion tactic," he writes. "Muslims are (probably) not to blame for bringing down the WTC buildings after all."

Yes, well I suppose on that basis it's quite 'plausible' that the moon landings were done on a Hollywood soundstage and aliens built the pyramids and Stone Henge.

Jones acknowledges that there have been "junk science" conspiracy theories about what happened on 9/11, but "the explosive demolition hypothesis better satisfies tests of repeatability and parsimony and therefore is not 'junk science.'"

I suppose it is difficult to find two towers and two fully fuelled jet liners to slam into buildings in the interests of repeatability.

Morons like Jones do the world of science and forensic enquiry no good at all by perpetuating flagarant mistruths and indeed it calls into question every thing he does as a scientist. How do we know he isn't lying about his work in Metal-catalysed fusion? More people have been directly involved in investigating the events of 9/11 that will every be peer reviewing his work.

Perhaps Jones would like to leave his ivory tower every now and again and join the real world which already knows definitivelywhat happened on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

Cynicism is not a useful basis at arriving at facts because the enquirier is blinkered by their own perceptions as Jones clearly is.

Am I being cyncial in saying Jones wrote his 9/11 paper because he needed to get his academic publishing quota up for the year?

Tell Jones he's a moron. His phone number and e-mail address details are here.

-- Nora

UPDATE:To Dr Jones' credit, he does return e-mail. Here it is with my response below:

"Jones, Steven" wrote:Could I invite you then to actually read my article?

Speaking at a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, Mr Annan spoke out in favour of national reconciliation and urged all factions to be allowed to join in the political reform process.

"The idea is that reconciliation is absolutely essential in Iraq - I don't think anyone would argue with that," he said.

"The political transition must be a process that is inclusive and transparent and takes into account the concerns of all groups," he later added.

The Federal Opposition has seized on a report that Iraq has suspended imports of Australian wheat, to demand the broadening of powers of a royal commission into the scandal involving payments by AWB.

A newspaper report says the Iraqi Grain Board has ceased the trade, until AWB repays hundreds of millions of dollars paid to a Jordanian transport company which ended up in the coffers of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Labor's foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd has called for the royal commission's terms of reference to be expanded, so it can investigate whether there was a Federal Government role in the affair.

Further down:

A United Nations investigation concluded money paid by wheat exporter AWB to a trucking company to transport its grain to Iraq went directly to Saddam's regime.

Good on the UN for looking into all this and exposing wrongdoers!

Oh, wait a moment, one forgot - the UN investigation was not into AWB but into the UN's own corrupt 'Oil For Food' program and it had to be forced to do it by the US.

But there's no mention of any of this by the ABC or that the investigation found that 'Oil For Food' money was siphoned off to the benefit not just of Saddam and mates of the UN but even to Kofi Annan's own son.

The ABC's sins of omission present Annan and his organisation as white knights and corruption busters.

It's like a '30s Chicago newspaper hailing Al Capone for supporting poor widows without mentioning it was his cronies who widowed them.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Nice to know we're concentrating on the important stuff, such as the sensitivities of a pack of self-entitled nascissistic exhibitionists.

-- Nick

Update: While reading a couple of columns by the intensely satirical Professor Mike Adams about lunacy in the US university system, one felt curious to delve into what was going on here in Australia. Here's an 'interesting' link to the University of Queensland website and a school 'outreach' program which uses the promotion of 'safer school communities' to cover an agenda of proselytisation among children. And before anyone suggests that's not what they're trying do, consider their field trips to other university campuses:

The Sodomobile Hits the Streets! Join us @ the Union carpark, for a convoy to far-flung campuses to Queer ‘em up. We have room for 8 in the union van and some of us will be bringing cars along. RSVP to Kris Coonan (Ph: 3377 2214; email kris.coonan@uq.edu.au) by Wednesday 2nd March to make sure we can transport everyone! Picnic @ Toowoomba provided

Your tax dollars at work, your children at an institute of 'learning'.

Tim Blair, owner of Australia's best blog, is hosting a party in Sydney to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the day that will live in hilarity - the sacking of the incompetent Whitlam Government.

Unfortunately the party is 1040.96km away and we can't find a designated driver who's willing to go that far.

As regular readers know, Nicky and I like to relax over a cocktail on a Friday night and we thought it would be fitting to find something suitable to celebrate The Dismissal.

By why stop with one? Whitlam's legacy continues (i.e. - we can't get the bugger to leave the limelight) and thus, we felt it important to chronicle the political life and times of (Edward) Gough Whitlam's by cocktail (historical gaps filled in by Wikipedia with much editorialising).

When Ben Chifley died in 1951 Dr Herbert Vere Evatt (Doc Evatt - you can blame him for the United Nations...) was elected Labor leader without opposition. He campaigned successfully against Menzies's attempt to amend the Constitution to ban the Communist Party. Many moderates in the Labor Party believed this was both bad politics and bad policy because of the active Communist opposition to Labor within trade unions and because of the threat to national security posed by Communists. They were right.

Whitlam admired Evatt greatly, and was a loyal supporter of his leadership.

1963

Anonymous1 Part Southern Comfort1 Part Sweet & Sourmix1 Part ChambordMix equal amounts into a glass with ice, strain intoanother glass.

The ALP, having been founded as a party to represent the working classes (ho-ho-ho), still regarded its parliamentary representatives as servants of the party as a whole, and required them to comply with official party policy. This led to the celebrated Faceless Men picture of 1963, which showed Calwell and Whitlam waiting outside a Canberra hotel for the decision of an ALP Federal Conference. Prime Minister Menzies, in the November 1963 election campaign, used it to great advantage, drawing attention to "the famous outside body, thirty-six 'faceless men' whose qualifications are unknown, who have no electoral responsibility."

On 2 December 1972, Whitlam led the ALP to its first electoral victory since 1946 using TV advertising extensively. Many of Australia's entertainment celebrities took part in the advertisement singing an Age of Aqarius-style anthem called It's Time.

The Senate resolutely opposed six key bills and twice rejected them. The repeated rejection of these bills provided a constitutional trigger for a double dissolution (a simultaneous election for all members in both houses), but Whitlam did not decide to call such an election until May 1974. Instead he expected to hold an election for half the Senate. To improve his chances of winning control of the Senate, Whitlam offered the former DLP Leader, Senator Vince Gair, the post of Ambassador to Ireland, thus creating an extra Senate vacancy in Queensland which Whitlam hoped Labor could win. This manoeuvre backfired, however, when the Queensland Premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, learned of the appointment before it was announced, and had the Governor of Queensland issue the writs for the Queensland Senate election before Gair's resignation from the Senate took effect.

Bjelke-Petersen refused to appoint the ALP's chosen replacement, Dr Mal Colston, and asked Labor for three alternative nominations. Bjelke-Petersen said he had concerns over Colston's integrity - with good reason.

So on 11 November 1975, Kerr revoked Whitlam's commission and installed Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister until a federal election could be held. He then immediately accepted Fraser's advice to call a double dissolution election, in an ironic twist using as triggers the same bills that the Coalition had rejected in the Senate.

On hearing the proclamation dissolving Parliament, which ended with the traditional 'God Save the Queen', Whitlam delivered his famous impromptu address to the crowd that had gathered in front of the steps of Parliament House. During the speech he famously labelled Fraser as "Kerr's cur" and told the crowd: "Ladies and gentlemen, well may we say 'God Save the Queen', because nothing will save the Governor-General."

Whitlam's critics point to substantial failings in his administration. The economy declined, with balance of payments problems, high unemployment and (by Australian standards) very high inflation.

Loud-Mouth1 oz. Kahlua1 oz. Jose Cuervo Tequila3 oz.Cranberry juice

Even in old age, Whitlam is a larger-than-life figure in Australian politics, with a ferocious intellect, a razor-sharp and often disparaging wit, and a towering ego that he never troubled to camouflage. The Labor historian Bob Ellis has described him as "the self-appointed deity of the Labor Party".

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

As 17 men were arrested today for plotting a terrorist attackon Australian soil, defense solicitors for the men arrested in Melbourne have come up with a novel excuse for the illegal arms they carried:

Defence lawyers suggested the men were paintball enthusiasts and that jihad did not include military action but a spiritual struggle for religious purity.

Ah, that would explain the holy hell their supporters were raising outside the court.

The court was told security officials wanted the Magistrate to know about an incident outside court between a group of the men's supporters and the media where a cameraman was assaulted by four men.

Monday, November 07, 2005

Journalists across the world have fallen for another hoax - that of the tale of Jimmy Massey, a man claimed to have served in Iraq but quit after all the horrible, horrible things that his fellow troops did.

News organizations worldwide published or broadcast Massey's claims without any corroboration and in most cases without investigation. Outside of the Marines, almost no one has seriously questioned whether Massey, a 12-year veteran who was honorably discharged, was telling the truth.

He wasn't.

Each of his claims is either demonstrably false or exaggerated - according to his fellow Marines, Massey's own admissions, and the five journalists who were embedded with Massey's unit, including a reporter and photographer from the Post-Dispatch and reporters from The Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal.

Editors at some papers look back at the Massey articles and are surprised that they ran them without examining whether the claims were true or without ever asking the Marine Corps about them.

"I'm looking at the story and going, 'Why, why would we have run this without getting another side of the story?'" said Lois Wilson, managing editor of the Star Gazette in Elmira, N.Y.

The media tries to spin itself straight:

In many cases, journalists covered Massey as he was speaking at public gatherings. Some reporters said that because he was making public statements, they didn't feel an obligation to check his claims. Some editors worried they could be accused of covering up his claims if they didn't report on his speech.

No, the truth is much more simple than that. Take it from Nicky and I who both spent considerable time in the Fourth Estate.

To quote the memorable words of X-Files' Fox Mulder: They're true in the sense that they are believed to be true.

The mainstream media wants to believe bad things about our troops and therefore laps up anything that fits that paradigm. Why should they verify facts when they want to believe what they are being told is the truth?

If anyone has any doubts about this mindset, consider the way US 'memo-gate' producer Mary Mapes still tries to defend her role in Rathergate.

Christine Rush, whose 19-year-old son Scott faces the firing squad if convicted of being a drug mule, said in an affidavit the family had pleaded for assistance with the AFP before (emphasis mine) he left Australia for Indonesia.

"The inaction of not warning our son, contrary to our request in Australia, shows a callous disregard for the life of an immature, untravelled Australian citizen," she said in the affidavit before the Federal Court in Darwin.

"He is now facing charges which carry a maximum penalty of the death sentence because of this inaction and so-called cooperation."

So mum, you knew about your son's drug trafficking habits before he left Australia and all you did was write a letter?

You show a callous disregard for the lives your son's filthy trade would have destroyed had he not been detected.

About Me

We pay homage to the Thin Man series of films from the 1930s in which William Powell (Nick) and Myrna Loy (Nora)solve mysteries with style, humour and a martini.
We explore the mysteries of human behaviour as revealed in politics, media and entertainment (and whatever else catches our fancy).